1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to athletic practice devices and, more particularly, is concerned with a holder for practicing football place-kicking without the assistance of another person.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Over the past several decades, accurate place-kicking capability for scoring field goals as well as extra points has become an indispensable weapon in the arsenal of the modern football team. The place-kick is typically performed with a player called a holder assisting the kicker by teeing up the football in a stationary upright position with its one tip end resting on the playing surface or a flat kicking plate commonly referred to as a tee. The ball is hiked from the center to the holder who transfers it to the teed up position just a second or so before the kicker's foot engages the ball. The holder normally steadies the ball in the desired upright position by placing his index finger on the upper tip end of the ball and applying a slight pressure downwardly on the ball.
High proficiency in accurate place-kicking is attained by hours and hours of practice out of season as well as during season. To most nearly simulate actual game conditions, the participation of a center and holder, or at least a holder, would be required at practice sessions. However, it is impractical, except possibly at the professional level, to dedicate the services of one player solely to serving as the practice holder for the place-kicker. Thus, during the past several decades, a variety of mechanical practice devices have been employed as a substitute for the human holder.
Representative of the prior art are the football place-kicking practice devices disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. (Des. 235,462) to Pennington, Elsea (3,105,686), Cavett (3,762,706), Gerela (3,897,948), Forrest (4,049,267) and Ferrebee (4,477,077). While many practice devices of the prior art would appear to operate reasonably well and generally achieve their objectives under the range of operating conditions for which they were designed, most seem to embody shortcomings which make them less than an optimum practice device. Some practice devices have rigid parts which are likely to be contacted by the kicker's foot and may result in injury to it. Other devices fail to provide a way to adjust the tension or force imposed on the football so that it can be maintained in a desired position for place-kicking practice under different weather conditions. Still others which provide for variation of the tension applied on the football require the adjustment of a complicated mechanism or the use of tools and take too much time to perform the adjustment steps.
Consequently, a need still exists for a football place-kicking practice device which is easy to set up and use, relatively simple in construction and operation, accurately simulates actual game conditions, minimizes the possibility of the kicking foot contacting rigid parts, and is readily adjustable to facilitate place-kicking practice under different weather conditions.